The last few weeks has been quite a nail-biter for owners of various ASUS-branded tablets. While ASUS manufactures the mouthwatering Jelly Bean-powered Nexus 7 tablet, immediate speculation came regarding ASUS’ existing tablets and whether or not they too would get some Android 4.1 lovin’ too. Apparently, ASUS reps at a conference in the Netherlands stated not all of their tablets would get Jelly Bean, which understandably caused major concern for specifically owners of the older legacy tablets like the Eee Pad Transformer TF101 and Eee Pad Slider SL101 tablets. In addition, the same source highlighted the Jelly Bean rollout for select devices is unclear, but could perhaps begin in October.

However, in some expected damage control— ASUS Germany then denied their colleagues from the Netherlands have made such a statement about TF101/SL101. In fact— ASUS Germany believes that the idea ASUS reps in the Netherlands only confirmed Android 4.1 upgrade for TF201/TF300/TF700 tablets is just pure speculation. According to ASUS Germany’s current information, the Eee Pad Transformer TF101 and Eee Pad Slider SL101 tablets will also enjoy Android 4.1 upgrade too.

We’re not sure who we can believe, but we’ll wait for an official statement from ASUS headquarters regarding this. Nevertheless, if you’re an owner of one of the premium model ASUS tablets out there, you’ll want to keep your fingers crossed and hope that you’ll get the Jelly Bean update. In the meantime, we’ll be sure to keep you posted if we hear of any news folks.

Jelly Bean has been out for a few weeks now, so it’s only natural that we see some information on what Android 4.1 is and how it can benefit you. Of course this only applies to owners of the Nexus 7 tablet since you know… it’s the only device with Jelly Bean for now. To celebrate the shipping of the first batch of Nexus 7 tablets (which yours truly is among the first to receive I might add!), the fine Android team has published the complete Android 4.1 changelog which includes information on Accessibility, Browser, Data Usage, the Google Search and Google Now apps— as well as improvements to existing apps.

Many of you are anxious to see all of the changes now, so head out to the source link to get full details.

Well while the Verizon Galaxy Nexus is one step closer to truly becoming a “Nexus”, Sprint’s Galaxy Nexus is still lacking AOSP support, so what gives? Well, for one thing Verizon’s Galaxy Nexus— also known as toro— only has experimental binaries at this point and Sprint’s Galaxy Nexus— also known as toroplus— well… is not getting even an experimental build of the various binaries. And not only that— Sprint’s Galaxy Nexus is not only getting the cold shoulder from Google Developers, but there are no immediate plans to offer support for that version of the device as indicated by Jean-Baptiste Queru:

“As far as toroplus, the situation is unchanged: there are no plans to support it as a target device for custom AOSP builds. JBQ.”

This is certainly a bit of a messy situation unfolding. Considering the resounding success of the Nexus S 4G and the fact loyal Sprint customers have been eager to have the Galaxy Nexus, Sprint (and Google) would best figure out some type of compromise or solution and soon. The loyal Nexus customers deserve at least that much.

Well, Google has our backs and have just released Verizon driver binaries to use for the 4.1.1 Jelly Bean AOSP build. What does this all mean? Basically, it just means the Verizon Galaxy Nexus is still being supported as a developer device as much as it can be. These drivers will help ROM developers build custom Jelly Bean ROMs for Verizon’s Nexus.

It’s not all rainbows and unicorns, however. Jean-Baptiste Queru, tech lead of the Android Open Source Project, posted in a forum that he doesn’t consider “toro to be higher than ‘experimental’ at this point,” the term toro referring to the Verizon binaries. What that means is currently not totally known, but expect devs to pull this apart and tell us how it’s all working… or not working. Stay tuned.

While it’s exciting to see ICS’s expected growth in the Android distribution chart, you’ll notice the newly unveiled Jelly Bean is noticeably absent. We suspect once the Nexus 7 is released within a few weeks coupled with the immediate updates of the developer devices (Nexus S, Galaxy Nexus and Xoom WiFi tablet), Jelly Bean will make its mark in the next round of the distribution charts. Hit the source link for more details from the fine developers at Google.

Google’s upcoming Jelly Bean for Android devices looks to be the most anticipated and complete Android OS to date. While we know that the Google-branded developer devices such as the Galaxy Nexus, Nexus S and Motorola Xoom are all set to get first dibs of the OS update sometime this month, owners of other devices are left to twiddle their thumbs and play the waiting game. In keeping with Google’s newly unveiled PDK for manufacturers and developers, it was only a matter of time before we got news of when other devices will be expected to receive the coveted update. According to the Eastern Morning Herald, the Samsung Galaxy S III is possibly due to receive the Jelly Bean update sometime in Q4. If the rumors are indeed true, then the Galaxy S III will be among the first devices to feature Jelly Bean— albeit covered in TouchWiz no less.

Keep in mind that this is most likely pure speculation and there has been nay a whisper from Samsung directly, but hey— it’s certainly not farfetched to say that one of the most popular devices in the world should and will be among the first devices to feature Jelly Bean as its feature OS. After all, the device seems like it”s only destined to indulge itself in all that Project Butter buttery goodness, right?

We all like hidden treats provided by Google, don’t we? Well here’s a quick peek at the new Jelly Bean Easter egg and it’s just as fun as the last. To activate the Easter egg, simply go to Settings > About Phone/Tablet, and tap the Android version number 4-times fast (4 will get you to the very beginning, more will pass the start image) and your good to go. Once you see the picture of the cute jelly bean, just longpress on the screen to get to the endless game of flickin’ beans. Fun fun! Jump past the break to see a video of it in action. Read more

The Nexus 7 tablet was not the only star at Google I/O this year. Android 4.1 Jelly Bean shared the spotlight and is just as impressive, if not more so. In this video, we walk through some of the standout features of Google’s latest mobile OS, including recommendation widgets, flick to delete, icon and widget interactions, Google Now, and more.

Even though Jelly Bean only moves Android up to 4.1, there are enough new features to consider this much more than a minor release.

Adobe is getting serious about no longer supporting Flash for Android and mobile browsers in general, while continuing to develop for Adobe Air mobile apps. The Flash Team took to their blog today to announce that with the new Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, there will not be a certified Flash Player. In fact Adobe is taking it a step further and having the existing version removed from the Play Store on August 15. The current player supports Android 4.0 ICS in the default browser, however as Chrome is the new default browser in Jelly Bean, and does not support Flash, it is clearly on its way out.

If many of the sites you frequent use Flash and do not have an HTML 5 implementation, your best bet would be to download and keep a copy of the latest APK for future use. If you already have Flash installed on your device it will continue to function and receive critical bug fixes. If you plan to update your device to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean Adobe goes as far as to say they recommend uninstalling the Flash Player, though it should work with any browser except Chrome.

How do you feel about Flash no longer being supported on mobile moving forward, has HTML 5 implementation gone far enough?